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Artists in FAS 2018 Winner’s Exhibition
Reviews
Published: November 11 2018

Touch, Create and Communicate: Annual FAS 2018 Artists in Residence Exhibit

The artists in residence program has started from 2015 in Fujisawa City Art Space in Kanagawa, Japan. The year of 2018 marks the third annual artists in residence program. Four artists were chosen out of 52 contestants: They are Sumi Kanazawa, Umi Kumano, Asako Fujikura and Kurina Ninomiya.

Young artists in their 20’s and 30’s spend half a year together for four main activities within Fujisawa City Art Space. First, all four artists work in one big art studio in Fujisawa City Art Space for three months from July to September. Each artist has a corner to work on their drawings, paintings, films and knitting. Sometimes people would come visit to ask questions and view individual works in process. Second, the artists’ accomplishments are displayed from Sat. October 6th to Sun. November 25th 2018 on the same floor where studio was set. Third, talk session with the judge of the art contest of FAS 2018, Aki Hoashi and the four artists is held. Fourth, before and during the exhibit, workshops organized by Kanazawa, Kumano, Fujikura and Ninomiya are open to public. They make people closer to art, give them new perspectives and are good introductions of creative mind set.

The studio and the exhibit location are on the sixth floor of the ideal building named Coco Terrace Shonan. The building consists small private schools where children go after regular schooling. There are Calligraphy school, English school, Ballet school, Gym school, Abacus school and so on. Kids from kindergarten to high school often gather and casually participate in the activities of Fujisawa City Art Space. In addition, kid’s parents, family and friends also come to enjoy the activities here in Fujisawa City Art Space. You will be able to see the glimpse of their delightful experiences on the facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/fujisawacityartspace/

Names of artists and brief introductions of artworks displayed:

Sumi Kanazawa
《Table – Drawing on newspaper≫mixed media variable size 2018》
Gigantic drawings on hundreds of newspapers are laid on a big table. They are pencil stroke drawings, and works are still in process. Visitors are asked to take pencils and sit around the table to quietly give pencil strokes on newspaper articles. Drawings are more like covering some articles to erase than drawing some objects. The local newspapers are all recent ones from this past three months Kanazawa worked on. By giving strokes of pencil marks, visitors also make decisions as to which images and words to choose as the legacy of recent news.

Sumi Kanazawa, view from the exhibition(Photo by Ula Shibazaki)

 

Umi Kumano
《Super Mirage》 acrylic on canvas 227.3 x 454.6 cm 2018
《Shadow》 acrylic on canvas 50.3 x 45.5 cm 2018 series of four paintings
One dramatic huge painting with lots of images: people, objects, plants and alps are showing. The painting is called 《Super Mirage》 and is spotlighted in the dark gallery. One set of four small portraits called 《Shadow》 is displayed on the other wall. Some blurred and overlapped images show that everything seems as if it were in mirage. We have experienced traumatic weather in the first half of the year 2018. Kumano’s home in Fukui had a heavy snow storm in February. Scorching heat close to 40 Celsius attacked the whole country. Many strong typhoons hit during summer. The things we own were wiped out as if they did not exist. We felt as if all we had experienced or had owned were not real like “mirage”. Kumano’s keen sense captured our recent mental journey of life.

Umi Kumano, view from the exhibition(Photo by Ula Shibazaki)

 

Asako Fujikura
《promenade》 film 5‘00“ 2018
《monitor》 film 5‘00“ 2018
Accompanying with industrial machine-like noise, two screens show animated images of the city simultaneously across from each other. Images move to match the sound. Fujikura did some researches of Fujisawa city before creating the films. Unlike other films capturing industrial objects, colors of her films are bright, clear and gay. People don’t appear in the film, but Fujikura left some indication of living creatures by showing letters and signs on the street. The animation sweeps around the street, train tracks, machines and objects like flying the drone. The world of Fujikura reminds us of what our future will be like with less population and Informational Technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Asako Fujikura, view from the exhibition(Photo by Ula Shibazaki)

 

Kurina Ninomiya
《Transition》 strings, tape, silk gut, rope, hand-knitted 1400 x 600 cm 2008-2018
Gigantic knitted tapestry captures your eyes. Dramatic circular pattern of black, maroon, yellow, white, light blue expands. The artwork was displayed in the big open space between the 2nd floor to 4th floor stairwell. Depending on where you are and how you look at it, you imagine differently. Sometimes, it looks as though there are parts of the human body, and sometimes it looks like the scenes of nature like hills and mountains. It looks peaceful, but it looks aggressive in other occasion. It seems to reflect on your emotion and lighting. Lighting gives shadows on the floor and walls around it. Since Ninomiya’s work is flexible knitted work, she has displayed her works in various places, such as an aquarium in Kyoto, a boutique in Tokyo, an open-air music festival, a big warehouse the bay and a bookstore.

Kurina Ninomiya, view from the exhibition(Photo by Ula Shibazaki)

Even after the exhibit and the program, it makes us want to follow how Kanazawa, Kumano, Fujikura and Ninomiya develop in the future.


(Written by: Ula Shibazaki)

Referred exhibition:


Artists in FAS 2018 Winner’s Exhibition
Period:October 6th, 2018~November 25th, 2018
Venue:Fujisawa city Art Space
Website:http://www.city.fujisawa.kanagawa.jp/bunka/FAS/
Related Programs:
Workshops with artists held in September and October 2018
Talk Session with Artists and Aki Hoashi (one of the judges of artists) in October 2018

 

Last Updated on November 11 2018
 

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